I think at that time in 1998 a primary focus of the Canadian International Development Agency, which had representatives in the embassy in Beijing, was good governance, democratic development, and human rights. When China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, we were very keen to assist China in bringing its laws and practices into compliance with the covenant so that they could ratify and then be subject to the reporting requirements and international supervision that Mr. Saganash referred to. Our proposals were rejected by the Chinese authorities. To the best of my knowledge, we never were able to send in Canadian experts on the covenants or on the reporting requirements to China to provide that kind of assistance. That was unfortunate.
When I was working in the embassy, I was involved in a CIDA-funded project. I was in the political section, but CIDA gave me the administration of a project called the civil society program. That was to provide assistance to Chinese NGOs. We had the Canadian Cancer Society try to assist in the formation of a comparable association in China to support people with cancer. I think none of these things have borne fruit. We were hoping that we could spread a citizens' consciousness through these initiatives that would empower Chinese people to ask for the entitlements they have as human beings and citizens, which everybody, regardless of whether you're Canadian or Chinese or any nationality, should be achieving.
Unfortunately, I put many, many years into this work and am unable to see much benefit. I think you're right: that ground under that oxen is pretty firm.
But I haven't given up. I'm old; I only have a few more years to go.